The legend of Winthrop’s Mike Eruzione continues to grow.
The 1980 Olympic gold medal-winning captain and the team were featured in the CNN six-part original series, “Decades in Sports,” on Sunday’s telecast.
USA Today’s Christine Brennan, one of the country’s top sports columnists, called Eruzione’s achievement of scoring the winning goal to beat the four-time reigning world champion Soviet Union and the victory over Finland (for the gold medal), “the biggest upset in the history of sports.”
Eruzione’s team was part of CNN’s review of the 1980s, a decade that encompassed the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson-led Celtics-Lakers rivalry, the rise of hockey great Wayne Gretzky, the championship tennis matches between superstars Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, and boxer Mike Tyson becoming the youngest (at age 20) heavyweight champion of the world.
During World Cup soccer coverage in June, ESPN proclaimed Eruzione’s gold-medal victory, “the most patriotic moment in sports history.”
Eruzione also appeared in a TV commercial seen by millions promoting Fox Sports’ coverage of the World Cup.
We’re sure that Mike’s grandchildren are beginning to understand how famous the family name is internationally in the annals of sports history and the still far-reaching impact of Mike’s winning goal during the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y.
“Do you believe in miracles?” Yes!
And oh, by the way, that exclamation by play-by-play announcer Al Michaels has been tabbed “the most famous line in sports history.”